Passive optical networks are becoming prevalent in part because service providers want to deliver high bandwidth communication capabilities to customers. Passive optical networks may be desirable for delivering high speed communication data because they may not employ active electronic devices, such as amplifiers and/or repeaters, between a central office and a subscriber termination. The absence of active electronic devices may decrease network complexity and cost and may increase network reliability.
Passive optical networks may employ optical splitters to take a signal from an incoming fiber and make it available to a number of output fibers. For example, a distribution cable may include 24 optical fibers and may run from a central office to a distribution location, such as an equipment enclosure. At the equipment enclosure, each fiber in the distribution cable may be split into a number of outgoing fibers via an optical splitter module.
For example, an optical splitter may split an incoming signal into two outgoing signals. Individual optical splitters may be packaged in a steel tube and multiple optical splitters may be grouped together to provide a desired number of outgoing signals. When a number of individual optical splitters are grouped together, such as grouping 16 optical splitters together to obtain 32 outgoing fibers, a large volume may be required to house the grouped splitters. Individual optical splitters may be grouped into conventional splitter modules in an attempt to manage the complexity associated with grouping splitters when providing communication services.
Conventional splitter modules may be configured with an input pigtail that is configured to be spliced to a distribution fiber within the enclosure. When conventional splitter modules are installed in an enclosure, a linesman may have to splice the conventional splitter module to an incoming distribution fiber using a field splice. Field splices may be time consuming to perform properly, prone to problems, such as contamination from dirt and/or misaligned fibers at the splicing location, and/or may require specially trained personnel. The individual input pigtail may be coupled to a number of optical splitters within the conventional splitter module. The interior of conventional splitter modules may become crowded due to the number of individual optical splitters contained therein and the number of input fibers and output fibers associated with the optical splitters. Conventional splitter modules may also be configured with a number of output pigtails that may be connected to subscriber terminations via connectors and/or splicing.
Conventional splitter modules may be configured to mount in a chassis within the enclosure. Conventional splitter modules may be relatively large and may discourage achieving a desired level of connection density within the enclosure. For example, a conventional 1:16 or 1:32 splitter module may occupy on the order of 30 to 90 cubic inches (cu-in) of space. The large size of conventional splitter modules may limit connection densities because of the number of splitter modules that can fit inside standard enclosures.
Passive optical network deployments may benefit from new techniques for coupling optical splitter modules to incoming distribution fibers without using field splices. Passive optical networks may also benefit from optical splitter modules that facilitate achieving higher connection densities within an enclosure as compared to connection densities achieved when using conventional splitter modules.